Kernel Compilation Times

David S. Miller complains that CONFIG_MODULE_SIG slows down builds, and he does hundreds of allmodconfig builds every day.

This complaint falls apart fairly quickly in the comments; he knows he can simply turn it off, but what about others who he simply tells to test with allmodconfig? One presumes they are not doing hundreds of kernel builds a day.

linux-next had the same issue, and a similar complaint; I had less sympathy when I suggested they might want to also turn off CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO if they were worried about compile speed, and indeed, found out Stephen already did. Now they turn off CONFIG_MODULE_SIG, too.

Here are some compile times on my i386 laptop, using v3.7-rc1-1-g854e98a as I turn options off:

… using -O1 instead of -Os: 24 minutes (not a good idea, since we lose CONFIG_DEBUG_STRICT_USER_COPY_CHECKS).

In summary, the real problem is that people don’t really want ‘allmodconfig’. They want something which would compile a kernel with as much coverage as possible with no intention of actually booting it; say ‘allfastconfig’?